Does 10 years NHS employment count as work experience?

[Socrates' Shoes]

I don't have physician-shadowing experience or even any recent clinical work experience but I have spent the last ten years employed within the National Health Service in an admin position.

I have direct contact with wards on a daily basis as I am responsible for finding temporary staff. Would this be advantageous when applying for medical school or would it have no bearing?

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[DrMidlife]

To have credibility in med school admissions you must have substantial experiences where you get up close and personal with direct patient care. Close enough to smell the C. diff. Close enough to get splashed. Close enough that you need gloves on. Close enough that physicians need to explain why the clinical intervention that you observed worked or didn't. Close enough that you can feel the pain and frustration and confusion. Close enough to be thoroughly intimidated by the job you want and to feel doubt that you're up for it.

Your NHS experience is highly valuable. An appreciation of, much less competence in, administration, is unfathomably rare in doctors. But having walked the wards and hired/fired/onramped/etc is not direct patient care.

It should be very, very easy for you to get shadowing experience. You're on the wards. Presumably you've identified some physicians there. Walk up, introduce yourself as a premed, ask to follow them around, or to set you up to follow the night hospitalists around. Repeat until successful. Use each experience to get more varied experiences. Keep a log. Be willing to discover that this isn't what you want to do.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Socrates' Shoes]

To have credibility in med school admissions you must have substantial experiences where you get up close and personal with direct patient care. Close enough to smell the C. diff. Close enough to get splashed. Close enough that you need gloves on. Close enough that physicians need to explain why the clinical intervention that you observed worked or didn't. Close enough that you can feel the pain and frustration and confusion. Close enough to be thoroughly intimidated by the job you want and to feel doubt that you're up for it.

Your NHS experience is highly valuable. An appreciation of, much less competence in, administration, is unfathomably rare in doctors. But having walked the wards and hired/fired/onramped/etc is not direct patient care.

It should be very, very easy for you to get shadowing experience. You're on the wards. Presumably you've identified some physicians there. Walk up, introduce yourself as a premed, ask to follow them around, or to set you up to follow the night hospitalists around. Repeat until successful. Use each experience to get more varied experiences. Keep a log. Be willing to discover that this isn't what you want to do.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks for the response. I'm in the process of getting some more voluntary work through my contacts on the wards. I used to work as a nursing auxiliary some 27 years ago during my college years so do have some experience of direct patient care plus my parents owned a retirement home. Do you think this would be useful?

 

[kraskadva]

Are you trying to go to med school in the US or the UK? Because from this post and the other one you started, you're clearly in the UK at the moment...
Advice here will be different depending on which country you're trying to go to school in, as the application processes are different (though Dr. Midlife's comment on work vs shadowing would still be universal)

 

[Socrates' Shoes]

Thanks for the response. I'm in the process of getting some more voluntary work through my contacts on the wards. I used to work as a nursing auxiliary some 27 years ago during my college years so do have some experience of direct patient care plus my parents owned a retirement home. Do you think this would be useful?

Hi kraskadva, yes I am in the U.K. and will be applying to U.K. Med schools.

 

[kraskadva]

Hi kraskadva, yes I am in the U.K. and will be applying to U.K. Med schools.

Ok, well just as a friendly heads up then, most of the info in these forums is geared toward helping folks get into/through US med schools. General advice (on writing, ideas for volunteering, how to get shadowing, etc.) of course still applies generally.
But, when you get there, for specifics on the apps for UK med schools, you might want to pop over here (https://forums.studentdoctor.net/forums/uk-ireland.142/), where you can get more details for your side of the pond.
Best of luck!

 

[Socrates' Shoes]

Ok, well just as a friendly heads up then, most of the info in these forums is geared toward helping folks get into/through US med schools. General advice (on writing, ideas for volunteering, how to get shadowing, etc.) of course still applies generally.
But, when you get there, for specifics on the apps for UK med schools, you might want to pop over here (https://forums.studentdoctor.net/forums/uk-ireland.142/), where you can get more details for your side of the pond.
Best of luck!

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